Australian Association of Graduate Employers Conference (2012)

Australian Association of Graduate Employers Conference

Graeme Innes AM
Disability Discrimination Commissioner
Australian Human Rights Commission

Friday 16 November 2012

I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today.

Can you - as an employer - discriminate in favour of people with disability? The answer is a resounding yes.

The race and sex discrimination acts deal with discrimination against anyone on the basis of their race or gender. They make it unlawful - with some minor exceptions - to discriminate against anyone, or to treat anyone less favourably, on the basis of their race or sex.

But the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) is different. The DDA makes it unlawful to discriminate against someone, or to treat someone less favourably, on the ground of their disability. Its purpose is to advance the opportunity of people with disability in our society, and it contains no equivalent provision barring discrimination against a person on the ground that they do not have a disability.

So, if an employer decides to set aside 20% of its graduate recruitment programme for people with disability it’s not against the law. If an employer decides to create particular positions in their workplace for people with disability it’s not against the law. And if an employer decides to set a target or quota for the number of people with disability it will employ over a certain period of time it’s not against the law.

Part of my job as Disability Discrimination Commissioner is to advocate on issues which impact on of people with a disability. Employment is a key function in our society. One of the first questions people ask when they meet is what kind of work you do. As much as we may not like it, there is a real divide between people who are employed and unemployed in our society. It's the difference between being on some form of welfare, and taking from society; as opposed to earning a wage, having the independence that wage brings, and contributing to society through the payment of tax. A wage also provides you with a huge range of choices and independence that people who do not receive a wage just do not have.

I know- despite the myths that you may have heard - that people with disability are more committed employees, we stay longer, we work harder. I know - despite the myths that you may have heard - that people with disability take less sick leave than other employees- this is supported by US and Australian research. I know - despite the myths that you may have heard - that your organisations workers compensation costs do not increase when you employ people with disability. And I know - despite the myths that you may have heard - that in the vast majority of cases it costs no more to employ a person with a disability; and where it does the usual cost is no more than $500; and the government will pay for it any way.

So, now that we know that we can positively discriminate in favour of people with disabilities, and now that we know what benefits people with disability can bring to your organisation, why should we do it and how should we do it?

Let's have a look at a DVD made by the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Service [DVD plays]

Ideally, there should be no need for positive discrimination measures in employment. If people with disability were getting a fair go in the first place then this would be the case.

But we're not. There is still a problem.  People with a disability are not getting jobs, and discrimination is continuing, despite people with disability wanting to work (many of whom are highly qualified); employers are professing a willingness to employ people with disability; and processes supposedly in place to achieve this aim. But we're still neglecting people with disability - 15 % of the employment talent pool.

The latest stats from ABS "Disability Australia 2009" state -
“While there have been significant improvements to support those with a disability in many parts of their lives, little improvement has been made in key areas of everyday life over the last six years: labour force participation remained low at around 54 %, compared to almost 90 % for people without disabilities; and Year 12 attainment was around 25 % for people with disabilities, compared to just over 50 % for people without disabilities”

Let me tell you some stories:

A woman has a significant disability. She not only has a Law degree, but she won the University Medal. She won mooting competitions. She couldn't even get a job interview, let alone a job.

My own experiences – I had 30 interviews in one year; employed as clerical assistant where my job was answering the phone and telling people the winning lotto numbers. I was made redundant by an answering machine.

There is also the story of computer programmer with Asperger's Syndrome. He is a great programmer, but a poor communicator. So he couldn’t get a job.

These stories are not atypical and are taking place every day in workplaces across Australia.

Why? The low employment rate is not necessarily related to educational achievement. It is not related to ability. It is not related to employer attitudes, lack of understanding, and the system we use.

I think we need to unpack "merit selection" and what is really happening during the selection process.

We need to ensure that the selection criteria only contains the inherent requirements of the job and do not prescribe how a job must be done, only the outcome or output.

Apart from health and safety warnings, and descriptions on materials, does a cleaner need to read? Are we excluding people with disabilities in the recruitment process?

If the initial testing of people requires completion of a written test at a computer, and we don't have screen readers available, aren't we excluding people who can't see the screen?

If interviews are conducted in an inaccessible building, aren't we excluding people with physical disability?

If interviews are not available with an Auslan interpreter or a hearing loop, aren't we excluding people who are deaf or have a hearing impairment?

Further, we need to unpack what is happening during employment, and what is preventing career progression. Are we employing people with disability, in "special" jobs, and leaving them there?

Let's take recruitment: Do you or your recruitment agencies effectively exclude people with disability by the barriers that are in place? Tests on a screen, inaccessible premises, no hearing loops or Auslan interpreters? Some organisations have made a commitment to give every applicant with a disability an interview. A good example of this is Vision Australia. They provide a real opportunity to demonstrate capacity that maybe did not come through in the application. They give opportunities for people with disabilities to practice interview skills and the process of being interviewed for their next job application to improve their chances of success. There is a commitment to give every applicant with disability a real opportunity to demonstrate or discuss capacity to perform the inherent requirements of the job during the interview process - my experience - I was often not asked questions about how - as a person with a disability – how I would do the job. I think it's really important for employers to ask questions about disability. If employers do not, I always bring up the topic at the end of the interview.
Apprenticeship, traineeship and work experience opportunities for people with disability are created, or if your workplace has such opportunities and schemes, a proportion of these positions are reserved for people with disability.

Let's look at career progression during employment:

• Selection for training opportunities
• Selection for travel opportunities
• Mentoring
• A comprehensive support and capacity building programme is developed for employees with disability and their managers. This could include: A specific pool of funds for training opportunities for employees with disability; and all employees with disability to be given the opportunity to be matched with a mentor during their term of employment.

And then there's recruitment agencies contracted by your organisations. They should, as a requirement of their contract, identify applicants with disability for all jobs.

There are many other things that you as employers can think of, and do, once we shift the paradigm of the merit principle, and accept that it is ok to discriminate positively in favour of people with disability.

One of those things - currently being lobbied for by the Minister for Industrial Relations, the Australian Human Resources Institute, and myself, is that employers start to count the number of employees with disability in their workforces. The Commonwealth public service has been doing this for some time. About 15 years ago 6.5 % of public servants were people with disability.  This year its 3%. That's an appalling statistic.

So let's go back to those two questions:
Can we discriminate positively in favour of people with disabilities? To quote from Barak Obama, Yes we can. Second question: should we discriminate in favour of people with disability: Given the disadvantage we experience, and given the fact that we know we are not getting jobs, and given the wealth of talent which Australia as a country - and you as employers - are under - utilising, I think yes we should?

Thanks for the chance to speak with you today.